God might have sent Joey 'The Lips' Fagan on a f***ing Suzuki, but it was Roddy Doyle and Alan Parker that brought magic to The Commitments.
30 years ago, a small Irish movie about a group of young Dubliners who form a band to play American soul music opened with little fanfare.
Three decades later, The Commitments remains one of the most beloved Irish films of all time and with RTE airing their Back To Barrytown documentary this week, here are 11 things you might not know about the comedy classic.
The idea for a sequel
A sequel was proposed for the film which would have reunited the band in New York City.
Roddy Doyle did write a novel called The Guts, which had some of the characters from The Commitments in their middle years but a film adaptation is unlikely to happen.
Robert Arkins might not have played Jimmy Rabbitte
"I auditioned with my own band, we got called back about seven times altogether and I just got the part. I wasn't going for Jimmy Rabitte, the manager. I was going for the bass player and the singer," said Arkins during a DVD extra.
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During an interview with RTE, the casting agent for the film, John Hubbard, elaborated on this.
"At the time, I said to Alan Parker (director), 'you know, he's, he's unsure of himself, he 's not authoritative and a whole load of things,' but when I stopped. Alan said 'that's why I'm gonna cast him.'
During that same conversation, Ros Hubbard said that Parker wasn't interested in casting real actors or those with stage experience, he just wanted real people that knew what these characters were like.
"It was completely different to any film we've cast. They didn't have to be actors, they had to be real people. And as near to Dublin as you could get. Parker was learning about Dublin and he was going ahead of me as a Dubliner! He was telling me about horses getting into lifts before I knew where I was on this job!" she said.
A connection to U2
As Jimmy Rabbitte Sr said when the band were formed, "I'd say U2 are shitting themselves."
Well, Bono and co have more than one connection to The Commitments because the kid on the skateboard who appears outside Jimmy's window during the first third of the movie when the band are recruiting members is Peter Rowen, the then boy from the covers of U2 's "Boy" (1980) and "War" (1983) albums.
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Musicians in the band
Maria Doyle Kennedy was a member of The Black Velvet Band before the movie was made. She was the only member of The Commitments (the band) with a notable career before the movie. However, the majority of the band had some experience playing an instrument.
Johnny Murphy (Joey The Lips) and Bronagh Gallagher (Bernie) were the only ones in the group who had no music experience before making the film.
It's reported that Alan Parker originally wanted Van Morrison and Bob Hoskins for the role of Joey "The Lips" Fagan.
Andrew Strong was cast by accident
Dubliner Andrew Strong went on to play the pivotal role of the band's lead singer, Declan “Deco” Cuffe. However, he took an unusual path to the role.
Director Alan Parker only met the then 16-year-old through his father Rob, who happened to be the film’s vocal coach. After Andrew performed a rehearsal of Mustang Sally, Parker became convinced that he was the perfect fit for the character of Deco.
Fuck
The film runs for 118 minutes. In that time, the word "fuck" is used 169 times.
That works out at roughly one and a half F-words per minute.
Insider jokes
Jimmy is asked if he has brought Mississippi Burning (a film directed by Alan Parker) with him on the train while one character mockingly sings the title song from Fame (also directed by Alan Parker). A poster featuring Parker's earlier Birdy can be seen in the video store. Elsewhere, Jimmy is also asked if he has any Hothouse Flowers, a band in which Maria Doyle Kennedy (Natalie) once sang backup.
Horsing around
The scene where a young lad tries to get his horse into the lift is based on a real-life event.
The hilarious reply “I have to. The stairs'll kill him” became one of the film’s most iconic lines, and it's actually based on an experience screenwriters Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement had when they were scouting locations.
They were looking at a potential block of flats when they spotted a pony hanging out on the balcony a few floors up, and they couldn’t help but wonder how it got there.
Niamh Kavanagh provides vocals on the soundtrack
In terms of songs, Kavanagh contributed to tracks like Do Right Woman, Do Right Man and Destination Anywhere.
The movie soundtrack acted as a launchpad for the singer who entered the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland and won.
More famously, fellow singers Andrea Corr and Glen Hansard also had roles in the film too.
The locations
The film's opening scene where Jmmy Rabbitte (Arkins) tries to sell cassettes and shirts in a street market was filmed on Sheriff Street, in front of the St. Lawrence O'Toole Catholic Church.
A house in n Darndale was used to depict the Rabbitte family home and Joey "the Lips" Fagan's house was shot on the Pembroke Road in Ballsbridge.
The production also filmed scenes at Ricardo's Pool Hall - the Palace - on Lower Camden Street. The second floor of the pool hall was used to depict the band's rehearsals too.
The Archbishop Byrne Hall (also known as St. Kevin's Hall), located in the Portobello district of Dublin, was used to depict a local church community centre where The Commitments first perform on stage.
The Saint Francis Xavier Church, Dublin, located on Upper Gardiner Street, was used to film a scene where Jimmy finds Steven playing "A Whiter Shade of Pale" on an organ.
The production team also filmed a scene at a Phibsborough bus depot and Kilbarrack D.A.R.T. Station.
The awards
The film was nominated for Oscar (Best Film Editing) and a Golden Globe (Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical) but sadly, it didn't win at these two events.
However, it did win four BAFTA Awards as well as claiming accolades from the London Critics Circle Film, the 20/20 Awards and more.
